Governor Greg Abbott on Monday directed the Texas Military Department to deploy the Texas Tactical Border Force to the Rio Grande Valley to coordinate with U.S. Border Patrol under the Trump Administration to secure the border. Departing from military bases in Fort Worth and Houston this morning, the Texas Tactical Border Force will surge over 400 additional soldiers, as well as C-130s and Chinook helicopters, to join thousands of Texas National Guard soldiers already deployed on the border to collaborate with U.S. Border Patrol agents on the border. 

“Texas has a partner in the White House we can work with to secure the Texas-Mexico border,” said Governor Abbott. “To support that mission, today, I deployed the Texas Tactical Border Force, comprised of hundreds of troops, to work side-by-side with U.S. Border Patrol agents to stop illegal immigrants from entering our country and to enforce immigration laws. For the past four years, Texas held the line against the Biden Administration’s border crisis and their refusal to protect Americans. Finally, we have a federal government working to end this crisis. I thank President Donald Trump for his decisive leadership on the southern border and look forward to working with him and his Administration to secure the border and make America safe again.”

Launched in 2023, the Texas Tactical Border Force is a part of Governor Abbott’s comprehensive border security mission. Under Operation Lone Star, Texas has deployed thousands of Texas National Guard soldiers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to the border, apprehended more than 530,800 illegal immigrants, arrested over 50,300 criminals, and seized more than 622 million lethal doses of fentanyl—enough to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.